Without knowing the cop's work history, it's difficult for me to begrudge the guy his retirement/pension.

Now, if he'd been a complete asshat for the last 20+ years, then he deserves nothing from our taxes.

If he was generally a good cop who made a grievous mistake on a bad day... then I don't have a problem with "allowing" him to retire.

I just don't have enough info.

Retirement money is a contractual matter. It's earned by long service. Unless there's a specific forfeiture condition specified, it can't be denied. You can fire the guy, but you can't take away something he's already earned.

Retirement money is a contractual matter. It's earned by long service. Unless there's a specific forfeiture condition specified, it can't be denied. You can fire the guy, but you can't take away something he's already earned.

...and I'm sure that early retirement is not merely an opportunity to mooch off the "system". When it's all accounted for, leaving his employment earlier than planned is going to cost him big time. He would still probably get to retire if he was fired and his reputation is shot either way, so at the end of the day, it just means his superior doesn't have to do as much paperwork.

Kind of sucks that he just gets to retire but at least he's off the streets. I hope he wasn't in the habit of acting like that. Maybe he had some kind of other stress going on in his life that he was trying to deal with and this pushed him over into asshole-dom. Not an excuse but maybe the cop doesn't normally do this kind of thing. Who knows.
It was a minor incident, but the cop was totally in the wrong, both in regards to the rear-ending and the intimidation afterwards. I can't believe some people want to blame the rider for part of it. The white car was obviously a potential hazard. He/she was not flowing as you'd expect with traffic - it could have merged over as soon as the motorcycle let some space open up, but it didn't. Looks like it didn't want to slow down too much and was still up in line with the other car's bumper (the car in front of the bike). If the biker had been a car, it would have been showing behavior that was simply courteous and, you could argue, defensive driving. Anyone driving behind a vehicle that is doing what the biker did should be fully aware of that white car and clue-in to the fact that the person in front of you is trying to let them in and/or avoid being sideswiped, and you should prepare accordingly. If you want to tailgate, fine, but be goddamn ready to slam on your brakes. This is driving 101. The cop must have been less than 5 feet off the bike's bumper. Who can't stop in traffic that is going that slowly? What if the biker had been a cyclist?
This is totally irrelevant but I wonder if the white car saw the cop back there and was being extra cautious not to hit the biker and make sure he/she was doing a nice lane change.

Kind of sucks that he just gets to retire but at least he's off the streets. I hope he wasn't in the habit of acting like that. Maybe he had some kind of other stress going on in his life that he was trying to deal with and this pushed him over into asshole-dom. Not an excuse but maybe the cop doesn't normally do this kind of thing. Who knows.
It was a minor incident, but the cop was totally in the wrong, both in regards to the rear-ending and the intimidation afterwards. I can't believe some people want to blame the rider for part of it. The white car was obviously a potential hazard. He/she was not flowing as you'd expect with traffic - it could have merged over as soon as the motorcycle let some space open up, but it didn't. Looks like it didn't want to slow down too much and was still up in line with the other car's bumper (the car in front of the bike). If the biker had been a car, it would have been showing behavior that was simply courteous and, you could argue, defensive driving. Anyone driving behind a vehicle that is doing what the biker did should be fully aware of that white car and clue-in to the fact that the person in front of you is trying to let them in and/or avoid being sideswiped, and you should prepare accordingly. If you want to tailgate, fine, but be goddamn ready to slam on your brakes. This is driving 101. The cop must have been less than 5 feet off the bike's bumper. Who can't stop in traffic that is going that slowly? What if the biker had been a cyclist?
This is totally irrelevant but I wonder if the white car saw the cop back there and was being extra cautious not to hit the biker and make sure he/she was doing a nice lane change.

I agree with almost everything you said, except I think the cop seemed like an old pro at the intimidation thing.

__________________
Jonathan
If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.

Quote:

Originally Posted by POLLOCK28 (XDTALK.com)

From what I understand from frequenting various forums you are handling this critisim completely wrong. You are supposed to get bent out of shape and start turning towards personal attacks. Get with the program!